Bibliofile

Beyond Boundaries

There is talk of a top Indian cricketer who retired recently from all forms of the game coming out with a book about his playing days, co-written with a senior sports journalist. The player was very correct in technique and in his behaviour off the field, but apparen­tly the book will not be so polite. He plans to write in depth about the stranglehold the cricket board has over the game. There is likely to be quite a bit of dirt on the controversial IPL as well. Going by cricketer’s reputation for honesty and straight talk, if he decides to reveal all, many current players and officials will be ducking for cover.

Fresh Off The Pen

Altaf Tyrewala (No God in Sight), who has just come out with his new collection of quirky short stories in Engglishhh: Fictional Dispatches from a Hyperreal Nation (Reviewed in July 21), says his constant concern is censorship. There have been no fatwas against his books so far, but he says he will test it even more in his next work. “Authors and artists have to keep pushing the envelope to challenge views held by the orthodox and the conservative, to bring out fresh, new ideas,” he says.

David’s Trickle

The ingenious David Mitchell (Number9dream, Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green) is writing his next short story, called The Right Sort, on Twitter. The story of a boy whose mother is on Valium will come out in 280 tweets that fans can subscribe to. Now that’s novel.